There's a couple (all six) of oddball minifigures in this that weren't an issue in the past. They only made so many different head molds to represent the different masks, and somehow Nuparu has Hahli's mask shape Hewkii got Nuparu's mask shape while Jaller got Hewkii's mask shape. Pridak has Takadox's mask shape while Takadox has Mantax's mask shape, and then the outlier of Ehlek with Kalmah's mask shape. Yeah... I don't know how you mess all that up.

it was an impressive mess, the minifigs that year. very funny tbh. i wish i'd gotten any of the playsets that year, all i have is some random parts from the biggest one, that i got in a used lot last year.

Yesterday we got real-fake Bionicle, today we get fake-real Bionicle.

To the best of my knowledge, this set doesn't reflect any conflict from the actual Bionicle 2007 storyline, an oddity it shares with 8925 Barraki Deepsea Patrol. As such, lore surrounding it comes almost exclusively from Greg Farshtey's message boards and online games.

Apparently, the thing one of the Toa is "piloting" is meant to be a Stinger Whale, part of a species of aquatic Rahi native to the Matoran Universe. This specimen was found injured and nursed back to health by the Mahri Nui Matoran, and provided to the Toa Mahri for their battles against the Barraki. The other Rahi featured in the set are mutations, one being a fusion between a Takea shark and a ray; wonder how Pridak and Mantax work out whose army it belongs in. The other, insectoid creature is presumably a member of Takadox's army.

Okay, before we get into the lore for this guy, I want to talk about something. You know how people often talk about BIONICLE lore as complex, deep, or layered? (Both in positive and negative contexts.) Well, a couple days ago my brother pointed out something to me that even I didn't know.

A weird commonality in Matoran architecture is shaping the entrances to buildings and structures as giant masks, with the mouths being the gates. We see this a lot: 8758 8759, 8894, https://biosector01.com/w/images/bs01/8/82/Path_of_Prophecies.PNG

My brother suggested this could be a nod to the original concept/metaphor that inspired BIONICLE, with the Toa being "pills" that were swallowed by Mata Nui. A point that's backed up by the specific moment the "swallowing" actually happens in the story being the Toa passing through this gate https://biosector01.com/w/images/bs01/5/5e/MoL_Mangaia_Hau_Gate.png

There's so much foreshadowing going on in BIONICLE and so many tie backs to its cancer-metaphor roots that it's hard to tell what was and wasn't intentional, but if that was a conscious choice by the crew it sure is a cool one.

My lore on this guy is actually rusty. Its a modified whale fighting a mutant shark, lets see what else I can find:

Long ago the Matoran Universe was largely ruled by by the League of Six Kingdoms. This military's reign came to an abrupt end when its leaders, the Barraki attempted a coup against the Great Spirit Mata Nui. The Barraki were imprisoned in the Pit for their crimes.

During the Great Cataclysm, the GSR crashed on the Ocean Moon of Aqua Magna. The island of Voya Nui was fired out of its dome and ripped the Pit open, and radiation from Karda Nui bellow mixed with the slat water of Aqua Manga above to create a strange mutagenic substance. This mutagen transformed the now "free" Barraki into half-fish monsters. The Barraki resumed their warlord ways, taming the local Rahi for their armies. While two of the Rahi in this set were never officially identified, the top left is likely a mutant Takea Shark from Pridak's army, and the bottom left is likely some sort of crab Rahi from Carapar's army.

Voya Nui came to float above the Pit. After a few hundred years a portion of Voya Nui, later known as Mahri Nui, broke off the landmass and landed in the Pit, destroying a Barraki fortress. The Matoran that survived the sinking began to harvest airweed to keep themselves alive in the depths.

Stinger Whales were one of the many Rahi species that inhabited the waters of the MU. A strange beast, they were largely hollow and had a hingeable windshield for forehead, allowing one passenger to hide within the beast. At least one of their many tails ends in a poisoned stinger for deterring threats.

One day the Matoran of Mahri Nui found an injured Stinger Whale dying on the seabed. They took the creature in and nursed it back to health. They crafted a custom built claw to wire into the creature's right flank, and stole a giant Cordak Blaster from the Pit's armory to mount on it's left. The beast served as one of the city's best submarines and guards.

1,000 years after the Great Cataclysm, Mata Nui's comatose state was quickly fading to full on death. The Toa went on a quest for the Legendary Mask of Life to save him. Just as the Toa Inika were about to claim the mask, it fled its chamber and dove into the ocean, racing for the ruins of the Pit. The Inika followed suit, and were mutated by the Mask of Life into water breathing forms (though not to the extent of the Barraki.)

While in the Pit the Toa become the Toa Mahri (after allying with the city.) The modified Stinger Whale was lent to them as a vehicle for select quests. When the Mahri and Toa abandoned Mahri Nui at the end of the 2007 story the Stinger Whale was relieved of duty. Unlike most named/notable Rahi of the series, it's never been confirmed or denied if the beast survived the Reformation. Since others of its kind survived the event and migrated, and Jaller's Hahnah survived, I'd wager it's fine.

One thing I absolutely loved about the 2007

One thing I absolutely loved about the 2007 wave of BIONICLE playsets is how much it leaned into the concept of making things biomechanical. As a sci-fi art style/world building technique, biomechanical elements are usually saved for straight up creatures, but its roots under H.R. Geiger called for the art to be used in vehicles and buildings as well. Having a living breathing monster that contains straight up rooms inside is so cool and super underutilized. It really sells how alien this world truly is. That said, The Barraki's Spider Crab and the Toa's Terrain Crawler always felt more effective than the Stinger Whale to me. Mostly because... they actually look good.

Also I'm gonna second what people said above. The minifigs in this are whack.
For 2005 the Toa were single piece molds and the Visorak lacked actual colors, making them the worst.
For 2006 the characters had a decent amount of possibility and accurate color schemes, making them the best.
For 2007 they've always felt kind of mid to me. They didn't create unique head molds for all the characters like they did in '06, which made a lot of them look inaccurate. They also didn't even bother to make a Carapar figure. I always headcannoned the Hewkii of this set to be Carapar just to excuse that exclusion.

@GSR_MataNui:
The current term appears to be “biomech”, so maybe people are starting to realize that “biomechanical” was a word before Giger was even born. It refers to the mechanics of biological systems, like how your musculoskeletal system enables you to walk.

@PDelahanty:
That process started in 2001, when the Tohunga villagers were released as McDonald’s sets, and were quickly renamed Matoran (with those sets being nicknamed McTorans). By 2003, they had renamed some of the actual characters. This set features a few characters who did get renamed. It sounds like “Bright Light Orange” is actually Hewkii, who was first introduced as Huki, while Jaller used to be Jala. The Barraki were all introduced well after this, so you’d have to track down someone on the story team to find out how far forward they had to go with name changes. I mean, there was reportedly a story bible before they even got started, so there may have been names changed over the entire original run. Then I think they skipped names for the reboot.

@iwybs said:
"IMO, Bionicle had jumped the shark by 2007."

Hey, his name’s Pridak and he’ll ask you to respect that! XD

@PDelahanty said:
"Every time I see a Bionicle set, I can't help but wonder if it's one they had to rename after exploiting Polynesian spiritual imagery."

That mostly ended after the first year or so. After they were told to knock it off, they introduced an in-universe holiday dedicated to giving characters different names. That more or less was the stopping point.

@Shadowcloner said:
[[ @GSR_MataNui said:
[ I always headcannoned the Hewkii of this set to be Carapar just to excuse that exclusion. ]]

I don't think this was meant to be Hewkii. Given both the other sets included a Hewkii with the same mask and general styling, I don't think that's what they were going for. The only other minifig from the year to share a change in head was the Takadox (also from this set).

Personally, I always thought the yellow one was Dekar. The masks are similarly shaped enough for my taste. Idk, maybe they just changed both masks to avoid repeating the same figure in all three sets. ]]

If I remember right there was a LEGO guidebook for minifigs around 2008 or 2009 that said it was, in fact, meant to be Hewkii, which makes the different head shape even more nonsensical.

@PurpleDave said:
[[ @GSR_MataNui:
The current term appears to be “biomech”, so maybe people are starting to realize that “biomechanical” was a word before Giger was even born. It refers to the mechanics of biological systems, like how your musculoskeletal system enables you to walk.]]

Dude you bring this up every single time there's talk about BIONICLE terminology. I bet you're one of those people that whines when Star Wars says "lightspeed" too. I specifically threw in "As a sci-fi art style/world building technique" because I knew you'd throw a hissy fit again. Words have more than one meaning, and sci-fi almost always deviates from the real world. Biomechanical is the EXACT term BIONICLE's crew uses to describe it. Get over it.

Minifigure issues aside, I do think the 2007 sets were probably the best of the playsets Bionicle had; even if they were the last of them. Still strange little sets, but at least compared to the bland fortresses of 2006 or the static-ness of 2005, at least 2007 looks like it fits the story of the year pretty well.

Seeing how well Ninjago and other themes now capture locations in their stories, its a shame though Bionicle's playsets happened when they did. Imagine minifigure scale sets based on say, an urban area of Metru-Nui with the same loving care as the Ninjago City sets had?